Foreword

It was an inquiry into Governor Macquarie’s administration by Commissioner John Thomas Bigge that resulted in the appointment of the first Colonial Treasurer and the establishment of the New South Wales Treasury on 28 April 1824.  William Balcombe, the first Colonial Treasurer, arrived on the Hibernia on the 5 April 1824 and took up residence at No. 1 O’Connell Street directly opposite the present home of Treasury in the Governor Macquarie Tower.  It was in that house on the western side of O’Connell Street on the corner of Bent Street that the first Treasury opened for the transaction of business, making the Treasury the oldest surviving Government agency in Australasia.  Significantly, also arriving on the Hibernia was fellow passenger Saxe Bannister, the New South Wales Attorney-General and custodian of the new Charter of Justice. 

This Golden Heritage booklet and catalogue has been prepared to commemorate the 175th anniversary of these particular and significant events in the history of New South Wales, indeed in Australasia. The Booklet includes a brief administrative history of the New South Wales Treasury and biographical data and photographs of the 57 Treasurers of New South Wales (1824-1999), and the 23 Secretaries of the New South Wales Treasury Department (1856-1999).  Also included is a list of those known Treasury officers employed between 1824-1999.  This publication, I am sure, will be an important and useful reference resource for my Parliamentary colleagues, historians, researchers, public servants and genealogists delving enthusiastically into our country’s past.

Many see the New South Wales Treasury as being a dismal, blunt, fiendish and at times obscure steward of the State’s financial resources.  A few of the decisions taken may have appeared unfair or harsh.  But they were always made responsibly on the best advice provided by some of the most financially articulate members of the public service in our country, Australia.  The fruits of this professionalism is a State able to meet its financial commitments and internationally recognised as having a sound ongoing fiscal position.

I am delighted and pleased as the 57th Treasurer of this State to present this publication to you and be part of this expressive reminder of our past together with its pointers to the future.  It has been and continues to be my Ministerial and personal pleasure to share with the New South Wales Treasury, and that means its foot-soldiers as well as its Executives, the making of this State’s economic history

This Booklet and Catalogue was written and produced by the Manager of the Treasury History Project, Roberta Carew and the Parliamentary Archivist Robert Lawrie.  The Exhibition, Golden Heritage was also prepared and mounted by them both.  We are gratified that the owner of the superb watercolour The Treasury 1852 painted by Jacob Janssen has given his permission for it to be featured for the first time in colour and on the cover of the Booklet.

Michael Egan

Treasurer